The latest edition, launched in Ottawa, Canada, offers a complete overview of threats facing avian populations and the work being done to save them.

Data concerning the status of threatened birds over the past 25 years has shown steady and continuing declines toward extinction, with Pacific species and ocean-going seabirds declining the fastest.

Results from the publication also show that the biggest pressure on threatened birds comes from agriculture, followed by logging, invasive species and climate change.

Conservationists say our familiarity with birds, from both modern and historical studies, offers a route to understand the trends and patterns in our environment more broadly.

"Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer that allows us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity," said Dr Leon Bennun, Birdlife's director of science, information and policy.

Although the report warns of a "planet in peril", there are also positive messages in the collected case studies from partner organisations that show the extent and effectiveness of conservation efforts.

For example, the UK-based RSPB and Birdlife International are working together to restore 100,000 hectares of Indonesian rainforest.

Birdlife partners are also establishing projects globally to protect endangered birds such as the African penguin, spoon-billed sandpiper and Azores bullfinch.